A Wasted University Experience: The Consequences of Online Learning
Claire Dickson
Students at Queen’s University Belfast were plunged into a period of online learning for the month of January. The university justified their decision with reference to the risk of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although most students are now back to in-person teaching, the switch back to online came as an added burden to months of disruption where mental health, the university experience, and the students’ futures, were compromised.
Queen’s University made this decision on the 20th December, despite the Ulster University opting to wait for guidance from the Northern Ireland Executive before making arrangements for learning in the new year. But it was not solely the decision to move learning online which provoked widespread criticism from students.
The fact that Queen’s University released the information about the move to the media before informing students themselves meant that students discovered their fate through a mere Facebook notification prior to the email– a clear communication problem between the university and its students.
Nidhi Nayak, an international student from India described her agitation towards the decision. Most international students pay four times as much in tuition fees, only to be given less opportunity to interact with others, leaving them feeling isolated. The effect of this on the mental health of international students has been, as Nidhi explains, detrimental. As the university wasn’t in a position to give face-to-face help for this, speaking to family and friends over the phone only added to a sense of helplessness.
From a pragmatic point of view, Nidhi added that students who decided to study abroad, perhaps owing to the incentive of high-tech lab facilities not available in their home countries, weren’t able to take advantage of these during the period of online learning and she feels that a lack of exposure to these facilities could ultimately affect the employability of students.
In a similar vein, a music student from Queen’s University relayed the impact of online learning on a practical, performance-based subject. They described how it was virtually impossible to gain any valuable insight from tutors. One of the many factors that acted as a hinderance to learning was the lack of audio quality when performing online. This detracted from the tone and resulted in timing delays, meaning the tireless efforts that went into the piece went unaccredited.
Whilst acknowledging the disadvantages of academic study online, this student felt that due to the wasted time and energy poured into online learning, they had missed out on slightly more than students following a more academic pathway. As well as this, most performance opportunities such as ensemble playing as well as playing as a soloist were snatched away with the onset of online learning. From their perspective, these opportunities are even more beneficial to musical learning than one-to-one lessons.
Only with time will we be able to see with clarity the effects that online learning has had on these few year groups, not just at Queen’s University, but the raging impact of the Covid pandemic era across the UK.
Claire Dickson is a Culture Reporter and Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast.